Sucky Sunday

Jeh likes to point out that I'm the king of premature celebrators (yes, twss). Good thing I bragged yesterday about having not had a losing day in almost two weeks. STREAK'S OVER!!!!

The day started with a 30-person, one-hand MTT. That's right, one hand. Despite my theory of staying out of the fray early, I (un/fortunately) picked up TT UTG in hand #1. I actually thought about folding, but I couldn't do it. I raised pot (to 70 -- blinds being 10-20), next guy calls, as do the cut off and button. Flop is 3-T-J, rainbow. Wahoo. So now I get to exploit the first hand madness that I see in every MTT. I bet out 200 (pot is 310). Guy to my left makes it 600 (YES!) and other two fold. I pause....and when my status bar is just to go blank I shove all in. He insta calls and his JJ is shown. Turn and river are blanks. Super fun tournament.

As for the rest of the day, I played about 460 hands at 7 different $.02-$.04 6-max tables over the course of the day and was a giant loser...to the tune of $8.54. Can't say I played super great or super tilty. I suffered a couple painful beats and did well not to tilt. However, I certainly went haywire on the last hand, losing my biggest hand of the Challenge ($12.54). Ouch. Flopped the toppiest of top sets, but the board also brought 3 clubs. When my opponent check-called the flop, I figured there was a good chance he held one big club. I decided that if I shoved, he'd only call me if he happened to be holding a big flush. Plus, I still had a few outs (boat/quads). Wrong and wrong. And thus went my $6.55. Feedback please. What would you do on the turn? I seriously doubt anybody shuts down on the flop when we flop top set. True? If I check behind on the turn, what do I do when he bets half-pot, pot or all-in on the river. I guess the answer is call, call and fold. Yes?

Oh well. Eeyore retiring (well maybe) for today......

A Few Brief Sessions

Haven't had too much time to play in the past few days. Played a 23 hand session Friday and profited a tidy $3.12 (I believe I win in the dollars-per-minute category). Played a similarly short 105 hand session this evening and netted $4.87. No extraordinary hands. I've been playing (for the most part) patiently and doubling up through the tilty maniacs.

Overall, the 'roll is now at $133.18....having played 4509 hands. Happy with that, and haven't had a losing day since Jan. 18. Here's hoping the Eeyore graph trajectory remains the same....

Overplaying AKo

I'll be brief about my Tuesday play. Same as Monday, I played three 6-max NLHE tables ($.02-$.04) and one $1.10 MTT.

The live play was fine, but I lost two big pots when I was in great shape when the money went in. I nearly tripled at one table, which offset (plus a little) my losses at the other two. For the day, up $.18 overall, including a net $1.28 at ring games.

In the MTT, I think I made a pretty big mistake....and I say that not just because of the result. As always, start with T1500. Thirty players, and we were down to 14. I played less than 10% of hands in the first two or three orbits (multi-tabling helps restrain my urge to screw around), and then I more than doubled up in the course of three hands. I was sitting at about T3200, and the blinds were 100-200, with an ante (I think it was 30). There were 7 at the table, and I picked up AKo on the button. One limper, and I raise to 500. The SB calls and the BB (who I recall having about T5000) raises to 1600. The limper between the BB and me folds. At this point, I feel like I can go all in (I have 2700 left, and there's about 3300 in the pot) or fold. Knowing little about the BB (playing 4 tables makes it hard for me to focus in on every player; and I believe this guy was pretty new to the table), I guess I should've saved my chips for another battle, but I shoved. SB folds, BB calls and turns over AA, with even my Kd covered by his Ad. The end.

Given the stage and chip stacks, should I have waited for a different spot? To be honest, I was looking for reasons to shove. I figured he could be trying to take it down there or narrow the field. "Unless he has AA or KK, I'm fine," I thought. I had almost exactly the average stack size (45k/14 remaining players = 3214). The biggest error was probably playing so aggressively (without a made hand) against a guy who 3-bet the pot OOP when I knew nothing about him. Thoughts?

Happy to have been up ($.18!) for the day....and very happy for rakeback. With rakeback, the Eeyore 'roll stands at $124.61. Look out, world. (rakeback accounts for 55% of the gain over three weeks. wow!)

Solid Monday

Played for a couple hours last night, but most of the excitement occurred in the first three hands at the first table. I 3-tabled $.02-$.04 6-max and played a $1+$.10 MTT (30 players).

At the first ring game, I picked up KhKs in the SB (my 2nd hand). Ended up getting all the money in and the flop brought 3 hearts, including the Ace. Rivered a flush and doubled up. Picked up AdTd on the button on the very next hand. My victim from the last hand raised to $.12 and I flat called. The flop was AA2. We both checked, the turn brought a 6. He bet, I raised, he pushed all in and I called. He had A3o, and I was at $12 after hand three. I played a couple more orbits and then left at $11 when another player doubled up to $11 (didn't want to have 10% at risk).

I lost small sums at the other two ring games (played very well - for me - but suffered a couple frustrating beats, including one gutshot when I had an overpair to the board -- got the villain to call an all in bet on the turn with just a gutshot. He got there.).

In the MTT, I finished 4th, resulting in a $3.60 prize (a little more than 3x's the entry fee). It took over an hour, and so it's unclear to me whether it's a proper investment. This is the third MTT I've entered. I didn't cash at the other two. I'll continue to play them on occasion, as I can use the tournament practice, and I can play one MTT while playing three live games. Anyone else playing MTTs?

Overall, up $6.30 for the session, and the Challenge roll sits at a few pennies below $120. Pleased with that....

Nine Wasn't Enough

Bad sign when you run (ok, slowly amble towards) the computer to play an hour of Challenge poker 15 seconds after 9 hours of "P"PP?

Pretty uneventful session, finishing a whopping $.53 to the good. Doubled my buy-in at one table, and went busto at another. Slowed down on the flop with AA, but shipped on the turn.....and my villain called with an open-ender. Nice river, sir or maam.

Overall, as poorly as I played a "P"PP today, I'm happy with my minimal loss there and my 53 cents of pure, unadulterated, non-furry sugar in the Cake Challenge tonight.

Eeyore's Uptick

Since my Monday buffoonery, Eeyore has been enjoying a nice uptick, from the $91 nadir to the present bankroll of a little over $111. I tightened up, stopped (for the most part) trying to bully my way to pots (note to self: check raising with air is a patently bad strategy in $.02-$.04 NLHE) and have tried to concentrate on NOT tilting when I feel that evil feeling coming on. It's helped. Since then, I've only gone busto at one table and have won nearly each session, as the pretty graph above indicates.

A few interesting hands from today.

I flopped huge on this hand, but was unwittingly behind. No way I was letting this monster (top pair, nut draw) go, and I got there on the river. While behind, I was a 54:46 favorite (not that I knew that at the time). Can't imagine playing this any other way. At worst, I was a 2:1 dog (if he flopped a flush), but I couldn't put him on a flush when he called my pre-flop raise...and the A was on the board and K was in my hand. If he was (e.g., with QJs), he was.....

I played one more ($1.15) MTT, just for variety. Busted out 23rd (of 30), but think I played well. Lost 250 on the first hand. Picked up 99 in middle position, made a 3x raise and a c-bet on the flop when 3 undercards (but two of a suit) came. The villain (who was the BB) called and then bet the pot on the turn when the apparent flush got there. I hovered from there (playing only about 15% of hands) until my busto hand occurred. My executioner made a bad call to my pre-flop raise and got the PERFECT flop. Bye bye, Eeyore. 0 for 2 in MTTs now, and will probably play one now and again for funsies (tm).

Can't decide whether to be proud of this one. The villain had 7To in the SB vs. my 8To in the BB. Interesting flop for us both. I bet aggressively on the flop and turn. It was one of those hands that, when called on the turn, I was 90% sure I was dead. Thank g-d for position, as I got to simply check back, in this case for the win.

With rakeback (yea....rakeback), the Eeyore role sits at $111.22.

How to Extract Value at Micro Stakes

At the risk of running into another slew of "it's player dependent" responses, I'm seeking some input as to how to extract value in pots where I hold a monster. Obviously, it's player dependent, but as a baseline does it make sense simply to steam ahead and hope to be called/bluff-raised...rather than trying to slow play at micro stakes?

In the 2000 or so hands thus far, I've run into this a fair number of times. Here's a very recent example. All I know about this guy is that, in the immediately prior hand, he stacked off on the flop with a horrendous holding. Note how terrible his pre flop calls (plural) were. So, on the very next hand, when I flop 2 pair and river a boat, I'm not afraid of being beat and am concerned from the outset on how to get max value out of this chump. My river check (hoping for a bluff) didn't work.....

Thoughts?